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Farmers in the United States are struggling to overcome an interrelated series of challenges that have driven many of them to the brink of financial failure. The most recent arose when some of the biggest U.S. trading partners imposed tariffs on U.S. agricultural products in retaliation for the Trump administration’s imposition of levies on those countries’ exports to the United States. This has come on top of a steep decline in crop prices, a sharp reduction in the farm labor supply, rising interest rates, climate change and a congressional stalemate over a new farm bill. “It’s all coming down on us at once,” said one Iowa soybean farmer. As many as one-fifth of that state’s small farmers could go under in the next two years, some Iowa bankers predict.read full report

Prices for agricultural commodities, such as this wheat being harvested in Illinois, have fallen in recent years, creating serious financial stresses for U.S. farmers. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)